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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Again an older piece of work that I did up cause I was bored or something.

Actually the headset I did cause I had a spare faceplate for it, and I thought it would be cool to spice it up a bit. And it turned out so well that I had an itch to do it to something else.

Turns out my son soon there after wrecked one of the controllers from mashing the X button too hard while playing Lego Jurassic Park.

So with it not working and me looking to do another mod, this was a win/win for me. Controller is already not working nice, so I can wreck it without worries. Or if I don't cock it all up I have a nicely modded controller!

So after a bunch of swearing and sweating.. I was able to get the cover off. Actually I have to say that it was not so bad and I could do it again but I would change my approach a bit next time however so as not to cause gouges in the seams.

After a quick grey primer or 3.. I then had to think on what I wanted to do. And for this I was aiming to go like the headset and do a rusty controller. So I pulled out the ModelMates Rust bottles and just slathered it all over the controller.

I do regret this now though as I then read and saw that ModelMates is no longer operating.. so the stock I have is the last I suspect I will have unless there are vendors with stock left. Cause it is a great product, but I know that the owner was having health issues so there is potentially a reason that he stopped trading.

Once it was covered and dried. I would go and do a ton of AK Heavy Chipping Fluid over the controller. Like everywhere over it. And let that dry overnight this time ( usually for tanks I can let it go in an hour or so.. but this was to take some more abuse so.. ).

After it all had dried I went and did a pale blue scheme overall with the airbrush. Trying to make the areas near the holes a bit brighter overall. No idea what I was doing here, but I was having fun while doing it so alls good in my book in that regards!

From here I would do and begin the chipping process. Removing a bit of the top levels of paint to reveal the rusty sections below. I also then put in ( temp ) the buttons to see if I should paint them or leave them basic.

In the end I left them only because they would take a lot of abuse and could rub off fast regardless of how much varnish I might apply later on.

When all was said and done, some massive amounts of gloss varnish were applied. With each layer given an hour to dry and cure before another was applied. And then as a final touch a few layers of matte varnish to bring it all back down in reflections.

My hope was that all these layers of varnish would assist in sealing the colors in and keep them from rubbing off.

I can say that after a month or so of playing with it since sealing it up, that it did not work. It might be good enough for my son to button mash more on Lego games. But with my fat greasy palms, the paint is beginning to lift, and get sticky on the sides. Will need to reseal it at some point, and have already made it permanently his personal controller ( which he thinks is cool cause its a special color ).

Lesson learned on this. And if I were to do it again ( not likely atm as all the controller work nicely ) then I will need to find alternative methods then.

For now, I am off to Duke of Bavaria to set up for the first time by myself as a trade stall! Wish me luck and hope to see lots of great pieces painted while there! Oh and maybe sell a few models while I'm at it.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Here is a piece coming from a Greek sculptor by the name of Stavros Zouliatis. He sculpted this piece up for his personal collection before putting it up for offer to get cast and sold. Again I was lucky enough to pick this up from him to get to work on.

Coming in 6 pieces total, and standing 75mm tall, this Ronin figure has a lot of nice details to play around with.

While chatting with Stavros about the model, he did state that one of his inspiration for the musculature on it was from Iggy Pop! I was a bit taken aback, but can see the resemblance a bit with regards to the chest section.

Though I am not sure if Iggy is as ripped as this Ronin is on the back!

I do like how the casting has made it so that each part fits perfectly to each other. And very little work was required to get it packed up ready for shipping.

Overall I think it is a stellar piece, and I am happy to see a small ground section included with the sculpt that we can include with the kit.

So the Ronin is standing 75mm tall without the base, and is now available from Mr Lee's Minis for 40 GBP.

Message us on the page, or email us at mrleesminis@gmail.com for purchase and shipping details.

Can't wait to show off my painting of him.. but for now back to prep for Duke of Bavaria!

Monday, March 27, 2017

Another figure I have painted in the previous weeks. One that I was really happy with how it was progressing and got a lot of great feedback from some great artists throughout the community. People like Oleksandr who co-sculpted it with Bran. Or from Roman Gruba who has been pushing texture and color manipulation on models more and more recently.

So with those behind me, I really tried to push my painting to new heights with some colors and textures.

The back sections were really pushed further with adding such a red into the shadows of the blue throughout the figure. Something that I haven't done before, and should do more of. If I continue to do more showcase pieces. I really like how it turned out in the end, and hope to push myself to do more of this in the coming year if and when time allows.

The only place that I really did not like was how poor the water effects came out, but I was able to just cover it in snow to hide the mistakes.

Hope to take it with me to Duke this weekend coming up, and see how Roman Gruba likes it in person, or what I could do to fix or improve it more.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

So a long time ago now ( 5 yrs? ) I had painted some ECW models from Warlords for a friend of mine back in Istanbul. No idea what he did with them or used them for.. but I painted them. I did not have fun with them back then.

For whatever reason I have started to paint up a full force this time and for myself even! I have to say that this first unit was the hardest slog of painting I have done for a while. And I will need to figure out another way to do it going forward. I think the biggest issue was the manner in which they are based. Being 4 to such a small base overall, so needing to come up with alternative methods to prep, paint and then move them to the proper base afterwards.

I really worked to make this as easy as possible and failed horribly in the beginning. There were lots of drybrushing throughout the process, but I do hope to fix it in future units.

Ground work was a pain, as I needed to remove them from other MDF bases, and then reapply them to the new bases in the right positions. This was trouble especially with the pikes to try to align them all up without crossing each other.

The only thing that I did figure out to work nicely was how to paint all the Pikes. Which was tac'd to a round socket, primed, and airbrushed. Helped to get a good coverage without stabbing myself with them attached on the models themselves.

When all finished though they do look interesting though. And I do want to see what this will look like when I get the full force painted up and onto the table. Transportation of it all will be a pain cause of the pikes, but I have ideas for that. Though I need to find a ton of very thin magnets to attach to the bottom of them to make this work. Something to find on ebay at some point I suspect.

My hope is that once I have moved house, and have a bit more space around to set this all up, I can plow through this army quickly enough to get them all done, and then have a few games with it at the club. Until then.. enjoy!

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

A new release for Mr Lee's Minis whereby we have this wonderful new Dwarf Bust ready to show off. I was lucky to get Kris over at BrokenToad to cast up a test piece for me to paint up while we wait for the larger batch to get completed.

Sculpted by the talented Przemysław Szymczyk from Poland.

I was lucky enough to jump on it quick enough when it was first announced on Facebook direct from the artist. It was a quick jump from there to getting it cast up and now to have it released!

I played around with the first copy by using mostly primary colors to get all the shades done. Though I have to notice that the piece came out a bit grey at times due to the primary choices I had on hand.

I was also learning on how to use Jo Sonya paints. Although nice, and fluid, they are a bit too much at times. Such as when I began to do some washes from the GW range, it was pulling up a bit of the Jo Sonyas.

The texture on the cloak was really nicely done and can be seen throughout the model here.

I really wanted to do some extra colors within the piece so added a lot of red throughout the cloak here to give it some variation.

The odd piece here and there throughout the piece was also nice. Such as the small tears on the cloak, or the beard beads placed throughout his locks from the chin.

I could still push the contrast further on him here, but have left it as it were for now. As it will give a good idea of how the model can be painted up for shows, and sit nicely on the display shelves for conventions.

Currently available from Mr Lee's Minis via our messaging system or can email us at mrleesminis@gmail.com to order one!

Monday, March 20, 2017

This was a great "little" project that we did for Curt over at Analogue Hobbies and for our entry fee to enter his yearly painting contest.

The deal with this year was that it could not be a solo project like previous years. It had to be a collaboration between multiple participants.

So I was lucky enough to team up with 3 other members, Clint, Iain, and Simon, to put this scene together. Clint being the main mastermind behind what everyone would be painting, and then letting me having a bit of freedom to put them together.

So with the other 3 painting up sheep for the scene, I was left with how to put it all together. I had been passing a few ideas back and forth and wanted to do a Shepherd for them, but didn't want to go the traditional route with them however. So hence the robot was put into the mix there. Knowing that I had plenty from past years purchases.

So first up really was trying to figure out the placement of all the models and make a proper sized base for them all. For this I actually pulled 2 separate sockets ( a huge flat one, and one that had a jagged edge ). And this gave me a really nice cliff like appearance here. Adding in some more rocks, putty, and dirt would then round it all out.

Of course since everyone else painted the sheep, I couldn't just place them on the base and then begin the painting. So I had to work out how to make this work, while still not making it super obvious that the sheep were just tacked there in the end. So that's where a ton of the grass and foliage sections were added once everything was painted up and the sheep attached :) Seems grass works great to hiding join spots :D

As for the Robot, he was positioned to be looking he was perched on the edge of the mini cliff there watching over his flock. So I tried to make him look like he was resting a bit there. And instead of a crook staff for him, I gave him a lab sign. Mostly cause that was all that I had around, but also cause I think if a Robot is watching sheep some sort of experiment is going to happen in the future.

In the end it was shipped off to Curt in Canada once finished and posted up to the contest where we got a nice runner up voting of it in relation to a book/movie. We aimed for "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep" which we were pretty stoked to have.

Now to post up a few more that I have painted recently in between packing boxes and getting ready to move.. again...

Thursday, March 16, 2017

So with all the great artists I get to work with, there are times that I even get to direct them to make something specific. In this case it was a big haired Samurai.

Originally he was supposed to be a bit shorter overall, however Oleksandr really wanted to add a lot of details into the piece. So he crept up in size to almost 75mm scale. And honestly, this is why I love working with the talent that I am privileged to work with. Cause they know the best scale to get the most out of the figure or sculpt.

I went for a very simple scene here and tried to make the painting stand out a bit more instead. So the base is simply 2 pieces of broken slate stacked on each other. With some sand and dirt tossed on top of each of them. A very simple scene therefore, and just a platform by which he can be standing on top of.

What I do like is that there a few smaller details that really set this piece apart from others. The small MJ that he is holding in his right, while his left holds his sheath there. Which was a lot of fun to paint up, and probably just as much fun for Oleksandr to sculpt on the figure.

The socket itself is yet to get primed black, and also some heavy magnets to be placed on the bottom to hold it in place.

Although I did not put as much colors into the shadows as I have in other pieces. I think it worked out nicely here. And I really worked to add texture into the cloth sections more that I have in other pieces. So putting criss cross lines throughout his shirt to make the shadows and lights more interesting.

In the end I am really happy with the results here.. and cannot wait to paint up another one with more emphasis on perhaps some sort of night scene perhaps?

Now he is currently being cast from our main caster, BrokenToad in the UK, and will be limited to only 75 copies. If your looking to pick up a copy, be quick as they are selling nicely here and won't be around long. Pre-orders can be requested via email at mrleesminis@gmail.com.